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The Machines That Sparked the Beginning of the Computer Age

Posted by samzenpus on from the in-the-beginning dept.

jjp9999 writes "A war of spies and electromechanical machines that took place beneath the wires during World War II not only played a crucial role in the Allies' victory, but also helped spark the beginning of the computer age. Among the devices was the Enigma, a cipher capable of producing 150,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible code combinations, and a hulking machine, the Colossus, the first programmable electronic computer, capable of decoding the Enigma."

14 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Thanks for the update Big Ben by jhoegl · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seriously, everyone who is a computer geek/nerd/dork/wannabe knows this.

    1. Re:Thanks for the update Big Ben by rssrss · · Score: 3, Informative

      But, this does give us a chance to recommend the excellent biography of Alan Turing which explains his role in the evolution of computer science and his role in breaking the German cyphers:

      "Alan Turing: The Enigma" by Andrew Hodges

      --
      In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
  2. American Crypto better than Enigma by cold+fjord · · Score: 5, Informative

    In these discussions it is common to overlook Sigaba, the American encryption machine that was significantly more secure than Enigma.

    SIGABA was similar to the Enigma in basic theory, in that it used a series of rotors to encipher every character of the plaintext into a different character of ciphertext. Unlike Enigma's three rotors however, the SIGABA included fifteen, and did not use a reflecting rotor.

    Electronic Cipher Machine (ECM) Mark II

    The ECM Mark II based cryptographic system is not known to have ever been broken by an enemy and was secure throughout WW II. The system was retired by the U.S. Navy in 1959 because it was too slow to meet the demands of modern naval communications. Axis powers (primarily Germany) did however periodically break the lower grade systems used by Allied forces. Early in the war (notably during the convoy battle of the Atlantic and the North Africa campaign) the breaking of Allied systems contributed to Axis success.

    Cryptanalysis of the SIGABA --- 3.4 Stepping Maze

    While other rotor-based cryptosystems tended to rotate their rotors as an odometer (with the last rotor moving one position per letter, and each other rotor moving one position when the rotor after it completes a full cycle), the SIGABA introduces
    an innovative concept. The movement of its cipher rotors depend on the two other rotor banks, collectively known as the stepping maze. The output of the stepping maze is not seen directly, but rather controls the movements of the cipher rotors. Thus, the SIGABA uses a hidden cryptosystem within another cryptosystem.

    The Germans that beat their heads against it referred to it as, "The big machine".

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    1. Re:American Crypto better than Enigma by ortholattice · · Score: 3, Interesting

      One of the oddest things I saw in the Wikipedia article was "SIGABA is described in U.S. Patent 6,175,625, filed in 1944 but not issued until 2001". I wonder if that is some kind of record.

    2. Re:American Crypto better than Enigma by AHuxley · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The US had networks of rich trustafarian like elites feeding back news pre ww2 and the US gov liked to read all text flowing via its private telco network ie Room 641A like.
      SIGABA was not that great, in great poverty, post ww2, England was able to tell the US of its workings in 1947 and hinted they had used some of the SIGABA ideas. The US was shocked as they thought they had "made in the USA" crypto perfection. The UK suggested working together on a better system, to cut costs in replacing its own Typex as SIGABA was in the past.
      The US said no, then Korea and the NSA changed everything.
      The US finally got crypto in the 1950's and its greatest gift to the world has been ensuring all export quality codes and devices used by friends and other nations where well known to the USA.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  3. Colossus was *not* used to break Enigma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    IIRC Colossus was used to break the Lorenz ciphers, not Enigma. BP were using the Bombs with menus for Enigma.

  4. Re:Allies were the villians in WWII by nickovs · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sadly, while the poster is clearly trolling with his deliberately lopsided history, the US did put well over 100,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps. These camps, while offering better conditions in most respects, bore far too close a resemblance to concentration camps for anyone with a conscience. look it up is you need to know more.

    --
    If intelligent life is too complex to evolve on its own, who designed God?
  5. Connections - Faith in Numbers by peterofoz · · Score: 4, Informative
    Anyone who is serious about computing should watch this Connections episode by James Burke that takes you from the water wheel and jacquard loom to modern day computing. Its simply amazing.

    Connections - Episode 4 - "Faith in Numbers"

  6. Re:Allies were the villians in WWII by Trailwalker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At no point in history has the United States of America run a concentration camp. EVER.

    We called them "Reservations".

  7. Re:Um...isn't this NEWS for nerds? by arth1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Thomas Edison was a really awesome inventor

    Thomas A. Edison was a really awesome businessman, opportunist, and quite possibly the world's first patent troll. Very few of the inventions he has been credited for were actually invented by him, the person. Sometimes by employees of Edison, and sometimes these were foreign inventions, bought or outright filched, and then patented in the US by Edison.

  8. Re:Um...isn't this NEWS for nerds? by GrahamCox · · Score: 3, Informative

    Thomas Edison was a really awesome inventor

    No, he wasn't. You've fallen for the hype (mostly created by Thos. Edison himself).

  9. Re:Allies were the villians in WWII by artor3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's the case now, but back when the reservations were set up, they were absolutely analogous to concentration camps. Entire civilizations were rounded up and sent on a death march to tiny parcels of low-value land, resulting in obscene high mortality rates. If it were done today, it would rightfully be called ethnic cleansing.

    I'm not at all the sort to hate on America -- modern day Americans are in no way responsible for the actions of people living close to two centuries ago. Heck, while I don't know the statistics, I'd be willing to bet that the majority of Americans aren't even descended from the English settlers who were living here back then. But we do need to acknowledge that what was done was wrong.

  10. Re:Allies were the villians in WWII by cold+fjord · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sadly, while the poster is clearly trolling with his deliberately lopsided history, the US did put well over 100,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps. These camps, while offering better conditions in most respects, bore far too close a resemblance to concentration camps for anyone with a conscience. look it up is you need to know more.

    Have you ever heard of the German American Bund? It was one of several organizations of German Americans in the 1930s-40s. It was a significant pro-Nazi force in the United States. If you watch this video, you will think your eyes are tricking you. But yes, that is the United States, and yes, the giant figure you can see in the back of some of the stages is George Washington. Was the Bund potentially dangerous? How could the government not believe it was a possibility? There were a large number of reports of "Fifth Columnists , such as the Sudetendeutsches Freikorps in Czechoslovakia, and the Selbstschutz in Poland that aided the German invaders. There were similar reports out of Norway, Denmark, and other places.

    This is Time magazines description of how things looked in 1940 as the US watched country after country fall to Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy and be brutalized in a terrible fashion.

    WAR & PEACE: Science of Treason - Monday, Aug. 26, 1940
    > The German-American Bund,* with 71 units strategically located in industrial centres or near munitions works, with 25,000 drilled and disciplined members, is only the most widely publicized of Hitler's U. S. supporters. There are in addition 10,000 other Hitler-heiling Germans in the U. S.; 400,000 Germans who support Hitler but keep quiet about it. There are lecturers, writers, organizers, technical experts, economists, historians. A German professor of history at the University of Hawaii has contributed articles on the U. S. Navy to the Nazi magazine Zeitschrift für Geopolitik, to which professors of the University of California and of Miami University in Ohio also contributed.

    > There are some 200,000 Italian fascists in the U. S.

    > Not counting fellow travelers, there are 100,000 U. S. Communists who are now actively collaborating with Nazis and Italian fascists, and who are more strategically placed than either in U. S. industry and trade unions. **

    > With native-born fascists included, the fifth column numbers more than a million. The main task of cleaning it out is a job for the FBI; laymen can take little direct action beyond reporting suspicious behavior to the Government. But every citizen can contribute to a change in the national atmosphere—"not of lethargy, not of fear, not of defeat, but invigorated by the defiant faith which we have known in the past as typically American."

    I've heard a report that 60,000 Germans & German Americans were arrested, and apparently at least 10,000 were held in camps. There may have been more. This story doesn't seem to get much attention, and the documents seem to be harder to come by.

    As to the Japanese, there were many of them that, like the Germans, also had patriotic organizations tying them to Japan.

    From: Bainbridge Island Japanese American Memorial Ignores Wartime Realities

    Before the war many thousands of Japanese Americans and Japanese citizens living in the U.S. belonged to militant and patriotic organizations such as the Imperial Comradeship Society and the Japanese Military

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  11. Re:unfortunately it's completely wrong by Conare · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For punch card machines you can go all the way back to the Jaquard Loom in 1801 which used punch cards to set weave patterns. Again, probably 95% of you readers knew this, but no one else had mentioned it yet so...

    --
    Stop Continental Drift! Reunite Gondwanaland!